The Curious Spot: The Scottboro Trials

Scotts Burrow Trial

The Scottboro Trials were the series of trials that would occur over a period of about 6 years, and would ultimately later be recognized as one of the longest trials, as well as one of the largest examples of segregation of rights between different races of people. The accusation that was made by a group of white women, was that they had been raped by these black men who would later become know as the "Scottsboro Boys". Due to their young age, the teenagers varying in age were convicted as juvenile, but were tried with adult like punishments. Through out the case, many injustices were practiced upon the boys. Such an injustice as that they were not able to get a real lawyer as everyone had known that no one would represent a black person because there was no way to win a case; and the parents of the teenagers had to hire a real estate lawyer. The trials attracted many visitors and brought great controversy after much of what had been done was re-examined. At one point, even the Communist helped the boys (only for reasons of recruiting).

"No crime in American history-- let alone a crime that never occurred-- produced as many trials, convictions, reversals, and retrials as did an alleged gang rape of two white girls by nine black teenagers on a Southern Railroad freight run on March 25, 1931. Over the course of the two decades that followed, the struggle for justice of the "Scottsboro Boys," as the black teens were called, made celebrities out of anonymities, launched and ended careers, wasted lives, produced heroes, opened southern juries to blacks, exacerbated sectional strife, and divided America's political left." (Linder)

Originally, the case was brought about due to a fight that occurred on a Southern Railroad freight train ride in Alabama.This fight was due to the a young white boy stepping on the hand of another young black boy, (Haywood Paterson) and ultimately creating a white versus black fight. When the train was stopped and checked by the police the "Scottburo Boys" were arrested and taken to prison. While one of the boys was able to escape from prison, another served life in prison, and the others were given a death sentence. Victoria Price and Ruby Bates had accused and reported to the police that the boys had rapped them. Later in the trials, Victoria admitted that she had lied about the rape. The end result only went to show the injustice served to the boys due to the racial discrimination.